TOW #14 Santa Claus Article

Eric Kaplan, a sitcom producer who write books on philosophy on the side, wrote this article advertising the belief in Santa Claus for adults that he might describe as having an open mind. This article was published in the New York Times opinion section. Kaplan argues that society should try to believe in Santa Claus through references to culture, and through avoidance of the question at hand.

Kaplan’s text is soaked with cultural references, trying anything it can to overwhelm Santa’s impossibility with sentiment associated with him. By comparing him to fairies, the Gift of the Magi, and the intangible but commonplace concepts of “Family” and “Democracy” (para. 9), Kaplan attempts to rationalize a very different intangible concept, Santa Claus. It does this in two ways, the first being submitting that A, no one knows with 100 percent certainty the existence of God, Santa, or anything for that matter. By using cultural references, Kaplan attempts to blur the lines between what we consider real and what we have deemed fictional.

The second way the text tries to justify Santa Claus, is by avoiding the direct question, “Is Santa Claus real?” Kaplan argues that it is beneficial to believe in Santa Claus, and argues that it is possible as a society to make yourself believe in something, even arguing against, “utilitarian rationality,” (para. 6). All of his points are well substantiated and well argued, even if the section on societal self-deception sounded frighteningly Orwellian, but they only seem to work as a cohesive argument because the inconvenient fact of Santa Claus’s nonexistence is never addressed.

At the end of the day, I don’t believe Kaplan was actually trying to convince anyone that there is a Santa Claus. He was arguing that we should believe that there is a Santa Claus. While the latter argument is well argued through the text and effectively handled with rhetorical devices, the former argument is the claim of the text. The former argument is officially what Kaplan is attempting to convince his audience of, and in that sense this text is of course very, very ineffective. 

TOW #13 Stinging Insects IRB Part 1

Edward Saunders, a etymologist, attempts teaches the public the basics of stinging insects with the purpose of inspiring. His intended point, as Saunders explains, is “take up the subject and add to our present scanty stock of information," (vi). In order to convert a casual reader into a well versed enthusiast, Saunders both animates the content and arranges the text in a way that a professor might, so that knowledge is built upon to understand more complicated ideas.

While everyone is familiar with stinging insects, most of our knowledge is about what they look like and how to avoid them. Saunders describes the laying of parasitic eggs into paralyzed living prey, “In consequence of this wonderful maternal instinct, foresight, or whatever the faculty may be, the larva when hatched finds fresh food ready for consumption,” (18). In order to spark life into the topic, Saunders uses creative language to discuss the intimate behaviors and family structure with which we may not be familiar.

Saunders's work is structured like a curriculum. The first section introduces the basics of each stinging insect. The next section describes different areas of study in the lives of the insects and tackles different hot topics in entomology, such as sexual dimorphism or pollination. The final section, as can be assumed from the titles of those chapters listed in the table of contents, is full of overarching ideas such as "On Colour" (119) or "On Structure" (132). This academically styled organization allows the general public to understand a breadth of information at various levels of complexity with the hopes that one area or another might spark some interest.

Yet, this work is more than it appears on the surface. The "humble bee" spoken of in this text, had been assumed to be a British variant on the bumblebee. However, humble bee is an old-fashioned term. This book was written at the turn of the twentieth century before the word bumblebee had been invented. It is very impressive that this work is still effective in its arrangement and style 104 years later.